Tagged With phone calls

We’re not talking about annoying telemarketing calls here. Cold calling to get in touch with potential customers may sound scary, but it could be extremely effective in an age where others are reluctant to hit the phones. You just need to know what you're doing.

It's not just sinister creepers who want to hide their phone number from recipients. Perhaps you're buying something over the phone and don't want the business' marketing department to have your contact details. Or maybe you're arranging a first date and aren't entirely sure about the guy yet. Whatever the reason, here's how to stop your number flashing up on the display of the person you’re calling.

There are numerous reasons that you might want to secretly record a phone conversation. It could be as serious as getting someone to admit to a crime, or as innocuous as making a prank call for a podcast. But is it legal? The answer depends on the Australian state or territory you live in.

Calls to 1800 numbers are supposed to now be free no matter what kind of mobile plan you are on. While most of the major Australian carriers have got on board and made calls free across all their plans, there are some laggards.

Do you have a few far-flung relatives around the globe that you haven't been in touch with for a while? If you're a Vodafone customer, you can make free international calls this weekend in a bid to lessen your guilt. (The catch is that only 10 overseas locations are covered.)

1800 and 13 numbers are often promoted as "freecall", but that isn't necessarily the case if you're calling from a mobile. Telstra has reduced the confusion for its customers a little by making calls to 1800 numbers free from all its mobile plans, both prepaid and postpaid.

Well, this seems overdue. While some mobile providers have long offered free calls to 13, 1300 and 1800 numbers, in their plans, many others haven't. Regulator the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) had originally planned to introduce legislation in January 2015 making fee-free calls compulsory, but now the major telcos have agreed to make at least some of those calls free ahead of that deadline.

Android: The next time someone calls you, you might be able to check out their recent Facebook status, find out if it's their birthday, or see the last text messages you shared with them, thanks to a new app called TalkSide.

iOS/Android: Free messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Viber are handy for free messaging to other people with the same app installed, but what happens when you want to make a call to someone on a regular number? FooTalk is a newly-launched VOIP app which offers relatively cheap rates for calls.

Prepaid calling cards can be a good way to use the landline for international calls when you're staying with family at Christmas, but you need to make sure you pick the right one. An analysis of calling cards by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) found that 40 per cent of cards on the Australian market had "significant problems".

One argument sometimes used against voice over internet protocol (VOIP) telephone services is that they don't always identify your location when you make a call to the 000 emergency number. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is taking TPG to court for a more fundamental problem: a six-month period where some of TPG's phone subscribers apparently couldn't access 000 at all.

Android: Always being told by your mother that you don't call often enough? Not staying in touch with enough work clients? Nextcall is a simple Android app which ranks your important contacts based on when you last called them, helping ensure you make regular calls to important people.

One of the key requirements under the new Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code is for mobile phone providers to specify how many 2-minute calls you could make on each plan they offer. That won't be a requirement until March 1 next year, but we can easily perform that calculation ourselves right now.

Primus has two new phone plans, Passport Easy 50 Countries and Lingo 50 Countries, that offer "unlimited" calls to international numbers in 50 countries. Are they good value? We've crunched the numbers and checked the conditions.

iOS: Calls to 13 and 1800 numbers are cheap from a landline, but cost a lot if you have to call from a mobile. App 13save automatically looks up the landline equivalents for common 13 and 1800 numbers so you can call them at lower standard rates.

If you want to send an email or text message to one of your contacts, you probably head into the contacts app to do so. In fact, you can contact your friends from nearly any app that accesses them, just by tapping their contact photo.

The integration of phone calling into Gmail was supposed to be a US-only feature, but it turns out that anyone who sets their language to US English in Gmail can also use the service to make calls (including free calls to US numbers). However, be careful when using Gmail for calling or you might accidentally switch it off.